SPATIAL PORTRAIT.   

(may be modified for any age)

 

Big Idea.

The relationship of student/artist educator and their learning space

 

Space.

The Art Education Classroom. DAAP.

Renovated Summer 2014

This space is used for UC’s Art Education classes, and a few classes not affiliated with Art Education.  The classroom has a concrete floor, exposed ceiling, partial wall segmenting classroom and hallway, and windows.  Through windows, one can see walkways through campus, an adjacent balcony, and an interior hallway.  Objects in the room include wooden tables, plastic chairs, metal stools, white board, bulletin board, and a tv.

 

Overview of References.

As Rufo’s students interact with their classroom, and participate in the design process, the classroom grows to be a portrait of the students in it.  Thus, this once foreign and teacher-directed space, becomes a place for imagination and exploration invented for and by its students.  In parallel, Artist Spaces seeks to display the relationship between artist and the space in which they work.  From this photography project, the artist found that “What results is an indication that each artist's style is often reflected in the quality, character, and aesthetic of their living/working environments--a striking illustration of how deeply personal, all-encompassing, and interconnected are life and art.” (Molthrop, 2014).

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Sequence Overview.

My activity stems from my interest of student participation in building their learning environment. See the following sequence for a complete description of the lesson planned.

 

1. Contextualize (5min)

Article: Swarming Toward Creativity. Teacher Artist Journal. David Rufo. 2014.

         Quote: “Every day I am torn between allowing the students to go to the carts when they feel inspired to create and making sure they remain seated in order to get the assigned class work completed.”

Article (secondary): Ophelia’s Fort. David Rufo. Teacher Artist Journal. 2013.       Quote: “As David Sobel emphasized in his book Children’s Special Places: Exploring The Role of Forts, Dens, and Bush Houses in Middle Childhood: ‘Through making special places, children are experiencing themselves as shapers and makers of small worlds.  This experience contributes to making them active shapers of the world in their adult lives.’ (110) Carl Andre considered ‘sculpture as place’ and ‘when not on exhibition, the pieces are dismantled and cease to exist except as ideas’ (Bourdon 107).  I realized for Ophelia her ‘fort’ meant much more to her than a structure.  Ophelia’s fort was a site from which she could safely explore, construct, invent, and reinvent (Hart). A few rocks precariously stacked atop one another turned out to be a ssimple yet profound way that Ophelia created a special place for herself in the world.”

 

Art Exhibition: Artist Spaces. Tina Freeman. New Orleans.

                        Quote: “Portrait of the city's artists and their relationship to space.” 

“What results is an indication that each artist's style is often reflected in the quality, character, and aesthetic of their living/working environments--a striking illustration of how deeply personal, all-encompassing, and interconnected are life and art.”

 

2. Partnered Discussion (5min)

            a. Partner students to discuss questions with each other

            b. How would you interpret this classroom as a work of art?

            And what is your role in this artwork?

c. Describe your relationship with this classroom, with self-portraiture in mind.

 

3. Activity (10min)

How do you think our classroom can better create a portrait of us as artist educators? Keeping in mind the function of the space (still has to be functional for the our typical class lessons.)

            a. Instructions: With discussion partners, students will redesign and reinvent their current classroom, based on the needs of the class

           

            b. BUT it’s not that easy… Challenge: Split class in half = Challenge #1 / #2

                        #1. You may only use the resources currently in this classroom (and the storage closet) AND you cannot represent anything that is currently in this classroom. EX. You can use pieces of a chair--but they cannot represent the same thing as it currently does (a chair--aesthetically or functionally)...up to your discretion

             **NOTE TO EXPLAIN MORE

                        #2. You can only use resources not found in a typical classroom (i.e. desks, tables, rugs, shelfs, projectors… etc)

 

(Pass out handout)

 

4. Sharing designs/ Final Discussion (10min)

           a. How did your responses to the first questions shift after you did the activity?  …Portrait = Artwork…. Spatial Portrait = Artwork….????

            b. Share your design!

            c. Activity hard? Hard for our functions or age?

            d. How are our interactions in this space connected with art?

            e. Do you think our current space effectively portrays us as a group of artist educators?

            f. How may we better use our classroom environment as the third teacher?

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Student Learning Outcomes.

           1. Understand the relationship of student to classroom and artist to art studio (through portraiture)

           2. Become more aware of aesthetics in our current classroom, and through divergent thinking, what ways may we better our surroundings to enhance our learning process as students and art educators

           3. Identify functions we need to carry out our classes--and how we may better use our environment as the third teacher.

 

Vocabulary.

           1. Self–Portrait: Work of art that conveys representation/ reflection of self

        2. Spatial-Portrait: Environment that conveys representation/ reflection of its users or designers

        3. Classroom environment: Place in which learning takes place, specifically noting aesthetics and their relation to the space’s user

 

References.

Barrett, Terry. Principles for Interpreting Art. Art Education, Vol. 47, No. 5, Interpretation. (Sep., 1994), pp.8-13.

Freeman, Tina. Artist Spaces (Exhibition). New Orleans. 2014. http://www.ulpress.org/catalog.php?item=155.

Frois, Joao Pedro and White, Boyd. Words for Artworks: The Aesthetics of Meaning Making. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2013.

Gude, Olivia. New School Art Styles: The Project of Art Education. Art Education. January 2013. 

Rufo, D. (2013). Ophelia’s Fort. Teacher Artist Journal , 11 (1), 35-45. https://www.academia.edu/3151352/Ophelia_s_Fort.

Rufo, D. (2014). Swarming Toward Creativity. Artist Teacher Journal , 12 (4), 231-242. https://www.academia.edu/8670578/Swarming_Toward_Creativity.